Patients admitted to Intensive Care Units (ICU), regardless of the cause, currently have a better prognosis for survival, as a result of advances in medicine. These patients usually have a prolonged hospitalization, as a consequence of multiple intercurrences usually associated with this type of hospitalization, which generates a neurological and muscular condition known as critical illness polyneuropathy (CIP) and myopathy (CIM).
Patients with these conditions have difficulty or inability to move, swallow and breathe, sometimes requiring mechanical respiratory assistance.
At Alcla they are admitted after discharge from intensive care units with varying degrees of functional difficulty, skin lesions, loss of sphincter control, in addition to needing (usually) mechanical respiration, and even non-oral feeding and hydration. They also require total assistance because they are unable to move on their own, and are highly dependent on others for all activities.
Upon admission, efforts are focused on comfort and functional improvement with an interdisciplinary approach covering all the areas involved, planning the best treatment for physical recovery, without leading to fatigue, which represents these patients’ main weakness.